Bhubaneswar: World's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal which proposed to set up a 12mtpa capacity Greenfield steel plant in Orissa's Keonjhar district at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore, today faced a volley of questions on its "actual intentions" and reasons behind "not
making any investment" so far in the project.
The questions were asked by Orissa's Industries and Steel
and Mines minister Raghunath Mohanty and two senior
bureaucrats at the first review meeting on progress of
implementation of mega projects in the state.
"Media report says you are going slow on Orissa project
and you have not denied it", Mohanty queried at the meeting
while company's project chief in India, Sanak Mishra said
ArcelorMittal was committed to its Orissa project.
The company which had signed MoU with the state government
to set up the mega steel plant in December 2006, had given
direct employment to only 12 persons.
Denying the report that ArcelorMittal had not made any
investment, Mishra claimed that the company had already
deposited Rs 25 crore with the government for land acquisition
related activities and held gram sabhas in eight of the 15
would be affected villages under Patana tehsil in Keonjar
district.
While the state government expressed its "displeasure"
over the number of employment given to local people, Mishra
said they had a "strong" R & R policy and would provide
jobs to many people once activities began at the field.
Mohanty also wanted to know reasons behind company
failing to set up an ITI (Industrial Training Institute) for
training the local youths.
"We have already sent 78 youths including 16 girls for
industrial training at Rourkela. Another batch of 19 youths
are also ready to take training", Mishra said assuring the
government that the company would soon set up the ITI.
Asking the largest steel maker to "come up fast", Mohanty
wanted it to submit a report on its plan for coming year.
Mishra, on his part, denied the allegation that the
project was delayed. "Procedures required time and therefore
it appeared that the project is being delayed", he told the
minister adding that its application for the Prospecting
license (PL) for raw material linkage be expedited by the
government.
While the company required 8,000 acre of land, it had
not been allotted any land for the purpose though granted
allotment for water requirements.
Of the total land, 754.688 acre were forest land and
2,847.282 acre owned by the government while 4905.213 acre
land would come from private persons.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 21:10